Duana Names: Putting A Name Into Action

Duana,
I've always been into baby names, but now that I'm looking at putting a name into action this June, I finally have a good reason to spend all my time on name sites! I always wanted something "normal" but not everyday... I was one of 11 "Laurens" in my third grade class. So for a girl my husband and I actually think we agree, "Adeline" which is actually a way for us to honor my grandfather who recently passed - Aunt Addie was his favorite sister (and my husband refuses to name a child after dear Gramps - "Grover Cleveland" - for obvious reasons, although I still think the name rocks). But with all the old lady names coming back are we going to end up with another 10 Addie's in a class?

Also for boys we've been thinking Connor, Declan, Desmond, Quinn, and neither of them sound like they could be Adeline's older or younger brother, assuming we'd recycle on the next go. What do you think? We're avoiding asking family because we want to premier the name with the baby... Thanks!

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So now we come to a great reality in the world of anything written – or read – on this site. We are, a little bit, snobs. You knew this already, so I’m not really shocking you. And let’s be honest, we’re a bit proud of it. So my answer to your question is yes and no.

Name popularity can be deceptive. You see the graphs of a name trending sharply upward and go “oh, that’s not for me”, but really, the names were in such disuse that even an uptrend doesn’t mean there will be three of them in kindergarten. There’s a very small group of people who think a name like this is palatable, who trolls their grandmother’s old yearbooks for names ready for revitalization. Honestly, in terms of the population, the group is minute. Miniscule!

Then again, people who are alike think alike, live in the same places-alike. Adeline may not ever approach the top 100, but if you’re in a neighbourhood of people who have similar interests to you, who are kind of hipsters but would scream if you called them that, whose sons and daughters are named Arthur and Gwendollyn, well, then it’s possible you may have another Addie somewhere in the crowd in the next ten years, as everyone runs screaming from Madeline and Caroline. But by then it won’t matter, right?

As for thinking ahead to your next child – brava! I mean, really I want your husband to relent on either Grover or Cleveland, because both are fantastic – but you raise a good point. Adeline still feels a bit old-fashioned and formal, and you want to mirror that with your second child a little. I think Desmond – or Declan - does a not-bad job of it, but overall you might want to think of names that have slightly more formality to them. For example, instead of Connor, perhaps Connolly or Crispin. Quinn definitely needs to be Quinlan or Quentin, to balance out her ladyship Adeline.

But these are great problems to have – they are gorgeous names, far away from the beaten path, and you already love them. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Grover.

PS – what was the name of the one girl in the class who wasn’t named Lauren?